Milk, Meat, Fiber, Hide. What more does one need?for the intake & cost of one coo, you can maintain 4-5 sheep. redundancy; one gets mastitis? still milking 3-4. hungry? eat one, process the hide, make textiles. still milking 3-4. cold? shear one & still have full count. can't do that with coos, rabbits, chickens, pigs OR goats.Lamb, Hogget & Mutton.Superior.
Are these show sheep? Sheep often don't look like that out on the field.
>>5132277Good luck keeping the wool clean enough. I doubt there's a breed of sheep that makes exceptional milk,meat, and wool. With every other animal it's really only one thing they're good at.
>>5132344This. The sheer amount of sheep breeds that exist are there for a very good reason and shaving isn't just for getting wool as a product, it's for the sheep's own health too because they are some of the most susceptible livestock to illness/disease. You also need dozens of sheep because the lamb mortality rate is exceedingly high even with dedicated sheep farms. 1 lamb per ewe after a year is never a gurantee but you are still going need to help the ewe give birth to the lambs one by one with no expectation that the lamb will survive after and, even then if they do survive, adult sheep can die before being ready for slaughter or breeding (which also happens a lot).The amount of maintence and vet bills you get with sheep makes them not a golden bullet choice for livestock. If anything I would pick a pig instead as they require less space, can rotovate fields for fodder crops as well as be fed a diverse set of food while the pigs pack more meat per animal compared to sheep. Heck, if you want to be quirky do flemish giants, that's what a lot of medieval farms lived off. Quick to reproduce, light to feed, big on lean flesh AND warm pelts.
>>5132344>>5132349dairy sheep. mostly Lacaune × East Frisian. two are Lacaune × East Frisian × Awassi (tar baby & far left, by water bowl, less "pointy" snoot)thats what washing, pickers & carding rollers are for. doesn't need to be "exceptional" wool. not everything requires the staple length and feel of moreno. awassi are great for rugged textiles. East frisian are fine for coats or pullovers. our polypay/Cotswold/EF/LAC is a fine texture for socks. yet every single one is an excellent milk producer with high fat content and great bag structure. the meat is far superior in flavor to actual meat breeds like Texel, Barbados or ANYTHING you get from NZ, just a slightly smaller carcass.im our years so far, we have lost 2 lambs, both were stillbirths, each one one one of a set of twins, leaving one healthy lamb each instance. this year we had no deaths/stillbirths. we had 4 sets of twins, two singles. our veternaty care this year has consisted of 3 doses of batryil and 6 doses of ivermectin, so probably less than the cost of a Tim Hortons value meal.yes, there are specialized sheep for specific primary purposes. no other livestock can provide as much value or as many options per calorie fed, space occupied or time on the hoof.
>>5132350Why are two guys holding hands while a machine milks a sheep?
>>5132587Because OP is a homosexual sheep farmer
>>5132587>>5132653sheep are just gay goats
